Flowers of the month: August

Bright pink asters to celebrate August!

I was inspired by designsponge's post on arranging flowers in unexpected containers.  A few favorite examples here:

 

Flowers of the month: July

Fresh white hydrangeas from J look so lovely this month.  In contrast I am wilting from this heat!

We added another little picture to the nook.  This time it's a print by Leah Duncan that I got from the Dallas Flea last month.

Flowers of the month: June

For this month's flowers I decided to head down to Austin Flower Co. to see what they had in store.  I had previously ordered my wedding flowers from them and really love the different varieties and quality of flowers that they offer.

They have a little cold room in back with all the flowers and I was in absolute heaven! (1.  b/c it was hotter than hot outside and 2. flowers!  lots of flowers!)


It was difficult to choose from among all these gorgeous varieties!

Hydrangeas of every color:

My favorite ranunculus:

Huge peonies:

Icelandic poppies:

And I didn't get the name of these but they're so lovely in a wildflower sort of way

So what did I come home with?

PEONIES of course! 

They're a different variety than the kind I usually get--I think they might be Coral Charms.  The petals are heavy and succulent and after I cut and arranged them in a vaseful of water, they started opening almost immediately to reveal their bright yellow centers.

Flowers of the month: May

A belated flowers of the month post--lovely spray roses in a gorgeous deep pink to celebrate May.  Arranged in one of my favorite vases by Heath Ceramics from my recent trip to San Francisco.

Spring flowers: ranunculus are finally in season

So remember my previous post about loving ranunculus?  I finally chanced upon them two weeks ago at the grocery store, squealed in glee and hurriedly rushed them home so I could begin admiring them sitting prettily my cozy little entryway nook. 

Well...I wish this post could end right here, but unfortunately there was a mischievous puppy who shall not be named...

...who by some miraculous feat, managed to balance on his back paws and get high enough to bite the head off one of the flowers and then proceed to gnaw on all the petals on where else? Of course... our bed.

We laughed off the incident but then things turned dire the next morning when he began having blood in his pee.  We then googled and found that ranunculus, along with a surprising number of plants/flowers are toxic if ingested by dogs.  Off to the emergency vet we went and after a week of exhaustive tests, he finally got on the right antibiotics and got better.  And no, it wasn't the ranunculus flower after all, so I'm glad that hasn't tainted my love for them. (Although I'll be glad if I never have to set foot into the emergency vet hospital again!)

Flowers of the month: March

Lovely pink tulips for the month of March!

Vintage Monday: marquee letter and table (Before and After)

Today's Vintage Monday items are also part of my Before and After series on the wonders of Krylon spray paint.

First up we have a marquee letter from the 1940s scavenged from an old theater in Neillsville, WI. I got this great letter from etsy.

Before:

I first tried to sand down the letter as much as I could before applying the spray paint but then realized that since the letter was metal and the paint red, coupled with the fact that the letter is from the 1940s, I figured I had inhaled enough lead for the day and decided to seal it all in with many coats of spray paint instead. (note to self: do not sniff letter too closely)

After:



The next item was salvaged from Goodwill. We had been searching for a little table to put in the entry way and while I keep dreaming of a marble top Saarinen, this one will stand in nicely for now.

Before:


I'm not sure what first attracted me to this table--the fact that it was $3.99 or that it had a sticker on the side that said "Property of Austin State Hospital". It was in pretty bad shape with the metal legs rusting and the top of the particle board that looked like it had been gnawed on. However, I felt like this table was worthy of a Krylon intervention and here are the results!

After:

Not too shabby huh? I chose a pearl grey for the legs and a bright tangerine for the tabletop (same as the marquee letter above). I think the colors really help give this table a new life and it now has a new home in our entryway.

I'm still trying to rework this little entry way nook. There are too many edges to keep straight--and I feel like we need something long on the bottom wall to balance everything out--maybe a little shelf?

In this picture: Our home sweet home letterpress print, a little painting by B's mom, and our newly Krylon-ed marquee letter. My new Liberty of London for Target tray sits on the new to us side table. And lovely pink tulips from Jill as March's flower of the month! (bigger pictures to follow)

Flowers of the month: February

I was in charge of this month's flowers and chose hydrangeas, this time in a lovely antique purple. I love them b/c the blossoms make a big impact and there's not really much arranging to be done!

A tip on prolonging the life of your hydrangeas (so they do not wilt as quickly or this method can also be used to revive wilted blossoms):

1. Fill a vase with room temperature water
2. Heat up some water close to boiling in the microwave in a separate glass or bowl
   
3. When cutting the hydrangeas, figure out how tall you want them to be in your vase, then snip them with kitchen shears, always right before a nub on its stem
4. Place the newly cut stem in the hot water for 20-30 seconds
5. Then put them in the vase with room temp water
6. Enjoy! Mine have lasted close to two weeks with this method.
   

Flowers of the month: January

I love having fresh flowers in the house but it feels so decadent to be buying them all the time. So Jill and I decided that we'd trade off each month--she'll buy enough flowers for two arrangements for January, I'll buy February's flowers and so on. That way we each get flowers at least once a month and it's fun to be surprised every other month! We actually started this tradition last year, and although we (ok I) lost momentum around October, it was so fun that we decided to try it again this year.

Jill kicked off this year with some delicate pink spray roses for January. I wish I had thought to take a picture of them after day 3 when they bloomed even more. Roses have such an great classic vibe to them and yet the spray roses are petite and not overpowering like regular ones. They were also perfect in the glass jar--very simple and balanced out the formalness that roses sometimes have.The pink was a great choice too--I couldn't decide whether to put them on the kitchen counter where they could be seen all the time or on the dining room table set with an antique lace tablecloth. Thanks Jill!